


alleluia

by Askance



Series: Mashiach [14]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Stigmata
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-22
Updated: 2013-04-22
Packaged: 2017-12-09 04:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/769750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askance/pseuds/Askance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time the Messiah died, they say, his disciple laid his body on a mattress in a house with no shutters and arranged his arms as if he were a young boy, sleeping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	alleluia

The first time the Messiah died, they say, his disciple laid his body on a mattress in a house with no shutters and arranged his arms as if he were a young boy, sleeping. He couldn’t wait three hours, much less three days, and sought out death to make a trade. He handed over his life and his soul, and in the house with no shutters the Messiah woke, gasping; and this, they say, is how he learned that one life seems to be worth another; this, they say, is where he learned how to die so well.

The second time the Messiah died, he used the lesson his disciple had taught him—how to lay down his life for the salvation of all. The disciple watched, bloody and bruised and beaten; he could not make a sound, they say, for his tongue had gone numb with wonder. The Messiah pulled Death and Satan from his shoulders and leapt into Hell, and with him took the End, and behind him he left a free world, and his disciple alone. They say the disciple wished for death but could not die, and that the ghost of the Messiah walked at his heels when he left that place in the company of the angel who watched over them; when the disciple broke bread, the Messiah was there; when the disciple dreamed, the Messiah was there, and kissed him gently and whispered that he had overcome the world, that the disciple must rejoice and be glad. But three days passed, and three more, trinities of days for months on end, and the Messiah did not rise.

They say the angel did a foolish thing and took it upon himself to rebuild the Temple, but the Messiah did not occupy it; and when finally he returned to the synagogue of his body, he was fragile and hungry, and Death and Satan lurked in the shadows of his mind. The disciple assured him that he was finished with salvation, and welcomed the Messiah home with open arms; so did the world turn, and they moved through it together, certain that the time for death and resurrection had passed.

The third time the Messiah died, many years had drifted by. They say that upon passing a place on the road he had been stricken with an affliction of the hands and feet, and that his blood smelled of lilies-of-the-valley; the disciple begged on his knees in prayer for this cup to pass from his Savior’s mouth, but this was a miracle too great to be shifted by man. The Messiah bled and grew thin, and the angel who watched over them alighted to bear witness to his final act of grace. The disciple kissed the Messiah’s feet and kissed his mouth and kissed the palms of his hands while the Messiah lay, unmoving and ecstatic in the only room at the inn, and the disciple wept when he slipped away, wept, they say, as no man has ever wept before, or will ever weep again.

The disciple waited three days, but the Messiah did not wake, and so he bore him to a holy place where the Savior of the world could rest forever; and they say that his wounds still bleed from time to time, that his body remains beautiful and whole—that one can see this, if he can still be found; that the sole disciple waits at his head for the set of three days that will bring his brother back to him.

He is patient and unhurried and when mortal life leaves his lips perhaps he will stand watch still, waiting—for surely a soul so pure must breathe again someday; surely his Messiah must usher the light back in.

**Author's Note:**

> This series belongs in part to Casey, whose contributions can be read [here](http://whiskyandoldspice.tumblr.com/fanfiction). 
> 
> Written for Easter 2013.


End file.
